Comal ISD FFA Students Collecting Awards at Stock Shows

Hours, days and nights of hard work and dedication are paying off for FFA students across the district participating in area livestock shows. Here are a list of honors from two of those shows.

Tis the season for livestock shows, and that means busy weekends for FFA students throughout the Comal Independent School District. Back to back stock shows include the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the Comal County Junior Livestock Show, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Feb. 25-March 17, and the Austin Rodeo’s Junior Livestock Show, March 16-30.

Comal ISD FFA students spend hours working with their animals for the chance to showcase them at these and other livestock shows. Judges inspect the animals for how healthy they appear, their size, their shape and other specific criteria. At the end of each show, prizes are given to the students who raised the best animals in each category. The animals are then either sold to breeders or farmers or students take them back home.

Beyond prizes earned, showing livestock teaches students leadership skills above what they may learn in a classroom such as earning trust, gaining time management tools and keeping and balancing financial records. By working with their animals on a daily basis, students must earn that animal’s trust, so that when they lead it into a show ring, it follows their lead. Time management becomes essential when students must juggle homework and the daily tasks necessary to keep an animal in top shape.

Because of their hard work and dedication, Comal ISD students across the district earned honors at various stock shows throughout the year. These are just a few of the major awards given recently.